I Took a Different Kind of Shot
by PrincessPeace15
Summary: The similarity pillagers have to villagers is WAY too striking. It makes you wonder what happened, doesn't it? Then, I remembered that iron golems often carry roses. One thing led to another in my mind, and I decided to try something out. (Oneshot)


As soon as I was close enough to the outpost to see it, I slowed down and scanned the area. As was to be expected, pillagers were everywhere. They weren't slacking, either; their eyes were bloodthirsty, almost heatseeking. They were _looking_ for something to shoot down.

My little experiment only needed one. In fact, if I got more than one trying to kill me at a time, I'd have to do some killing, which could have proven a horrid confound. So I looked around for the closest one, the one I could get to approach alone.

Well, it was still going to prove quite the risk, but I figured my best chance was the one about 2 o' clock from where I was currently standing. It seemed like the group of pillagers standing outside were in a sort of arch, and my best chance at doing this properly was going to be to attract the attention of the one on the end.

I swung around the pillager's right side, made sure there were no others in proximity, took a breath, and started walking toward him.

With my shield in one hand… and a rose in the other.

It didn't take long for the pillager to see me and draw his crossbow. So pillagers would begin attacking as per usual. The sight of a rose wouldn't immediately do anything.

After leading him a distance from the rest, I then deflected the pillager's arrows for a while. I didn't fight; I merely moved with him to deflect all the arrows he sent my way.

The pillager seemed to pick up on what I was doing and got an angrier look on his face. Nothing else was different, though; he kept shooting as he always had. I suddenly wondered if pillagers ever ran out of arrows.

Right as my shield, which I had constructed solely for this experiment, was about to break, and I was about to consider my hypothesis disproven… he stopped.

The pillager quit shooting at me. I couldn't do much of anything but look at him out of pure shock.

He simply held his crossbow and looked down at it for a few seconds. I could almost feel the existential crisis I may possibly have given to him.

But what perhaps shocked me most of all was when he threw his crossbow onto the ground. What could have made him lay down his weapon?

He then walked up to me and took the rose out of my hand, then looked at it for a while.

I could not believe what was happening. I'd heard of love having power, but I had no idea I… the rose, rather… had the power to make a pillager lay down his weapon like that. I didn't think such a thing was possible in a world where there were more entities that you had to run from than those that you could trust.

And unless this guy decided he was pranking me and picked up his crossbow to attack me again… I had potentially just done a whole conversion.

Two things happened at once, then: the pillager looked up at me, and I felt an arrow go into my side that didn't come from him.

Everything from there kinda happened at once.

I ran a distance away so that I could survey my opponents, which were two other pillagers with the full intent to kill. That became three when the pillager I gave the rose to ran over and picked up the crossbow he'd thrown onto the ground.

Just as I was starting to think herd mentality overpowered everything in this world… the pillager with the rose shot at the other two!

They turned their attention from me to him, starting to attack him as if he'd committed treason of the highest order. I immediately got out my sword and leapt into action, trying to kill the other two pillagers as to protect my new friend.

As soon as I made the first swipe, only one of them started to attack me again. In a normal situation, I would have taken the slow route and deflected a shot, then attacked, over and over… but knowing my friend was in trouble, I went into all-out-rage mode without even thinking, and mindlessly hit the offending pillager over and over with my sword. I managed to take him down… but then, I looked over at the remaining scuffle.

The pillager with a rose keeled over, leaving only the rose behind.

In the end, my experiment was a success, I suppose… but to me, that felt more like the death of a friend than the results of an experiment. I still carry that with me. Every now and again, I consider giving a pillager a rose again. Even though I know the results wouldn't be so drastic every time… I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.


End file.
